Paul Heyman and Bronson Reed came over to the blue brand for SmackDown this week to have a chat with SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis. Heyman said it’s in the contract that he can choose any talent
from any brand to join his War Games team.
He just wanted to give Aldis a heads up, something the GM took to by asking them to get the hell out. That’s when the golden goose, Cody Rhodes, showed up to ask what Heyman wants to talk about.
They discussed Raw, and Rhodes getting involved in Vision business, and what that means. It led to Reed stepping up and Heyman talking his way into a WWE championship match for the main event of the evening. Considering the aforementioned chat, the set up for the end of the show was obvious.
Later, Rhodes was shown meeting up with the Usos, with Jimmy saying he talked to CM Punk and he’s in for War Games. But also he’ll have his back later tonight.
Sure.
You won’t be surprised to learn the match didn’t go to a finish and Bron Breakker and Logan Paul showed up to get involved in the match. That just brought out The Usos, who laid them both out. They were getting a table set up to put Paul through it when the big surprise hit.
The suspended Drew McIntyre is back already.
Indeed, this is why Heyman showed up to chat with Aldis — the contract says he can get anybody and the anybody he wanted to get was McIntyre, suspended or not. The heels stood tall to end the show off the back of that.
The fans chanted for the OTC.
We’re one step closer to War Games, with two slots remaining on both sides.
This is fun.
This week’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown gave us a nice surprise right as the show got underway — Rhea Ripley made a rare appearance on the blue brand alongside Iyo Sky. They were there to talk about the upcoming women’s War Games match.
They were quickly joined by Charlotte Flair & Alexa Bliss, the other two members of the team and we got a look at a star studded lineup, a legitimately loaded babyface squad.
And then it all went to hell.
Flair straight up admitted she couldn’t pretend anymore — she doesn’t like Rhea, doesn’t trust her, and thinks she’s a snake. She’s friends with Alexa, and understands if she wants to go ahead with this, but she will not be doing it alongside her.
And with that, to a chorus of boos, she walked away.
That was the entirety of the segment, strangely enough. They didn’t have Ripley respond to Flair’s words, nor did Bliss speak out while still in the ring.
Instead, they checked in on them later backstage. Bliss told the others that Flair wouldn’t respond to her texts or phone calls. Ripley and Sky talked about needing to find two new partners after this, and while they were speaking the heel team came through and wrecked all three of them.
I genuinely don’t understand doing this, and can’t really see where they’re going with it. I’m willing to wait and see, though.
All the rest
- Jey Uso and The Miz had one of the matches of all time, with the former emerging victorious. There isn’t much of anything to say about it beyond that. Jey’s positioning on the card now seemingly earned him the win more than what he’s meant to Cena’s career relative to Miz.
- Axiom was the next guy to get a shot at Ilja Dragunov in the United States Open Challenge, and he, too, gave Dragunov a damn good match. The champ retained, having put over another foe despite defeating him. They made a point of having Dragunov refute Tommaso Ciampa again beforehand, noting he only wants to defend against guys with honor who he respects. No jackass wrestlers allowed!
- Sami Zayn had a message for Solo Sikoa, which was to say that he hasn’t been medically cleared and things have been bumpy for him on the blue brand. But he’s ready to turn it all around, and he wants Sikoa. Solo showed up to say as soon as he’s medically cleared, they’re going to duke it out. Well, surprise, Zayn announced he’s fully cleared as of tonight. He brought backup to go after the MFTs to give Zayn time to get at Solo. It turned into a chaotic mess of a brawl that ended with no real resolution. Aldis booked a traditional 5-on-5 Survivor Series style elimination match for the show before the big show.
- Are you serious bro? Zack Ryder returned to main roster WWE as one of the participants in the Last Time is Now Tournament. He was the mystery opponent for LA Knight, and he makes sense for the small part he played in John Cena’s career. Not unlike Jey Uso winning earlier because of his place on the card now, Knight advanced here despite never having actually wrestled Cena in a singles match.
- New Women’s Champion Jade Cargill squashed B-Fab, absolutely having her way en route to a pinfall victory. Michin showed up to defend her friend, and they made like they could do a match between the two in the future while Cargill told the camera to feed her whoever is next. All of this was fine as a way to continue putting over Jade.
A solid show.
Grade: B-
Your turn.
